Abbott Laboratories Inc. Friday said quarterly earnings rose, boosted by higher-than-expected sales of its its new rheumatoid arthritis treatment, Humira. The company also raised its 2004 sales forecast for Humira by $100 million.
Second-quarter net profit rose to $634.3 million, or 40 cents a share, from $246.6 million, or 16 cents a share, a year earlier, when Abbott took a large charge to settle a probe into marketing of its nutritional products.
Earnings from continuing operations, excluding one-time items such as a charge for spinning off its hospital products division, rose to 54 cents a share. The figure was in line with analysts expectations, according to Reuters Estimates.
Revenue rose 14 percent to $4.7 billion from $4.1 billion a year earlier, led by prescription drug sales, which rose 14.4 percent. Sales of medical products, such as baby formula and diabetes care products, rose 12.8 percent.
The company narrowed the range of its forecast for earnings from continuing operations for 2004 to between $2.25 a share and $2.30 a share, and for the first time gave a third-quarter estimate of between 51 cents and 53 cents a share.
Abbott in June had said it expected full-year earnings from continuing operations between $2.24 and $2.31 a share.
The company, however, faces challenges in sustaining its growth rate. As many as seven of its drugs, including its biggest seller, the antibiotic Biaxin, could face generic competition by 2006, according to JP Morgan analyst Michael Weinstein. Abbott is fighting the patent challenges and says it is confident of fending them off.
Humira sales would offset part of any potential loss. In the latest quarter, Humira generated sales of $203 million, topping the company’s estimates.
Abbott raised its full-year estimate for Humira sales to more than $800 million from more than $700 million, and said it continues to see sales of more than $1.2 billion in 2005.
Among the drugs that posted strong growth in the latest quarter was Tricor, a triglyceride-lowering drug whose sales rose 34.5 percent to $178 million.
Several companies, including Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical and Impax Laboratories Inc., have received U.S. tentative approval to market generic versions of Tricor. Both companies are involved in litigation with Abbott over the product.
Sales of Synthroid, Abbott’s thyroid hormone replacement drug, rose 27 percent to $193 million. Last month, however, U.S. regulators approved generic rivals to the drug and denied an Abbott petition to block them.
Sales of the company’s second-biggest drug, Depakote, for epilepsy and bipolar disorder, rose 13 percent to $256 million.
